Will Joni Ernst’s flirtations with the political fringe haunt her in November?

In the weeks since her decisive June U.S. Senate primary win, Iowa Republican Joni Ernst has found herself in the precarious position of being an establishment-backed candidate who owes her shot at a national office to some of the most conservative voters in her state. That means that while she’s now got the full support of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, she is also being confronted by sympathetic remarks she made earlier on fringe topics before audiences far to the right of the Iowa general electorate. The latest primary comments that could haunt her Senate bid are on the topic of Agenda 21, a community planning provision in a decades-old United Nations treaty that’s become an object of fear and conspiracy theories on the right, and especially in the commentaries and writing of Glenn Beck. Yahoo News has obtained video showing Ernst at a January GOP forum in Montgomery County, Iowa warning that Agenda 21 could force Iowa farmers off their land, dictate what cities Iowans have to live in, and control how Iowa citizens could travel from place to place.